Kyle Lohse is coming off the finest season of his career, going 16-3 with a 2.86 ERA with the Cardinals. / Jeff Curry, USA TODAY Sports

by Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY Sports

by Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY Sports

PHOENIX -- Kyle Lohse certainly never imagined it would take this long, and perhaps believed the payday would be greater, but Monday, he finally got a job.

The Milwaukee Brewers signed Lohse to a three-year, $33 million contract, requiring the Brewers to pay only $4 million this year, with Lohse deferring $7 million beginning in 2016. The Brewers offset a significant part of the cost alone by selling 34,000 single-game tickets Monday in wake of the announcement.

Lohse, 34, conceded the wait was agonizing long, but finally, it is over.

"Anybody would be lying,'' Lohse said of the anxiety, "if they told you it's not. Everybody was concerned. You get a lot of texts. Everybody wants to know everything. It's nice to not answer the questions.''

Lohse, the last star on the free-agent market, informed teams through agent Scott Boras that he wanted a decision by Sunday evening. The Brewers, with only starters Yovani Gallardo and Marco Estrada pitching well this spring, made the decision to come off their original two-year, $20 million proposal to sign the 13-year veteran.

"This doesn't have to do anything with panicking or anything like that,'' Brewers general manager Doug Melvin said. "It doesn't have anything to do with our young pitchers. I think we need the experience, it fills a hole that we were missing. He'll bring a lot to our pitching staff.

"It's my job to be responsible to the organization in both the present and the future. Losing a first-round pick is tough, but it's a decision we had to make.''

The draft-pick compensation, Boras said, was the primary reason for the delay. Lohse was coming off the finest season of his career, going 16-3 with a 2.86 ERA and dominating the National League Central the last two seasons. Yet, Boras said, precious few teams were willing to surrender a first-round pick, as well as lose allotted money in the upcoming June draft.

If not for the hefty compensation, Boras said, Lohse would have received a longer contract, and certainly signed much earlier. Free agents Anibal Sanchez of the Detroit Tigers signed a five-year, $80 million contract and Edwin Jackson received a four-year, $52 million deal from the Cubs. Yet, neither required draft compensation. Even Boston Red Sox starter Ryan Dempster, also 34, received a two-year, $26.5 million deal that pays him $2.5 million more annually than Lohse.

"Organizations having to choose between improving the team and choosing between draft dollars,'' Boras said, "that creates a circumstance that no general manager should have to face.''

Lohse, who last pitched a simulated game Friday at Scottsdale Community College, believes he could be ready within two weeks. He may make his spring debut Thursday against the Colorado Rockies.